It has come to our notice that some disgruntled elements have conspired to breed acrimony and disunity among the various tribes in the Niger Delta using a faceless group called Niger Delta people Freedom Fighters asking Mr. Timi Alaibe managing Director of Niger Delta development Commission (NDDC).

Since the senseless publication hit the news stand IMG has received several calls, text messages email from Niger Deltans around the world protesting, even some people calling the Ijaw greedy, selfish and unprintable names.

None of the callers supported Ekaette’s appointment as Minister because he wasted our slot as Secretary to Government of Obasanjo for eight years, he was only carrying files for exco meeting until he left office but the people are angry that the writers are demanding for both the senior minister and junior minister (minister for state) to be Ijaw sons thereby re-affirming the earlier fear by some ethnic groups in 2007 that the presidency wanted to impose Ijaw as master tribe in the region.

We the Ijaw Monitoring group (IMG) is worried like any other responsible organization because over the years we have become the platform for South South integration.

The IMG was the first orgnisation to set-up the Niger Delta Hall of Fame with over 300 photographs of personalities and their achievement declared open by Asari Dokubo in 2004; we are the drain behind the Niger Delta Blind students association, South-South women organization, Urhobo-Isoko Youth Network, Niger Delta Professional Forum etc.. Infact, before the 2007 elections, Niger Delta leaders were summoned by Vice President Goodluck Jonathan to the residence of Chief Ebitimi Banigo’s house in Lagos to mobilize support for his joint ticket with Yar Adua. Jonathan told the gathering made-up of former governors, ministers retired military officers former ambassadors and captain of industries that Obasanjo told him that the first PDP rally to take of the Tafawa Balewa square Lagos will prove to the world whether the South-South people are solidly behind him so there is need for our people to take-over the whole parade ground Tafawa Balewa square at all cost. All those who stood up to speak told the gathering that only Comrade Joseph Evah can mobilize such type of crowd from all South-South ethnic groups outside party boundaries and I took the challenge in the name of Niger Delta struggle and south-South solidarity to prove our unity on the D-Day.

Therefore we cannot fold our arms and watch disgruntled elements in the name of politics rubbish south-south solidarity.

We urged the public to ignore the faceless writers and their reckless press propaganda claiming to be fighting for Mr. Timi Alaibe’s appointment as minister.

We want to alert the public that they are not friends of Timi Alaibe or the Ijaw nation but the agenda was to provoke Mr. President against Timi Alaibe and the Ijaw people as enemies of other ethnic groups in the region. The hand writing is so clear on the wall that it is the handiwork of politicians but the authors are so foolish not to realize that their sinister job is an embarrassment to the Ijaw nation.

Timi Alaibe who is one of the very few intellectual titans the Ijaw nation can boast of, can not condescend so low to engage criminals masquerading as militants to ridicule the integrity of his people or cause division in our region.

We wish to state that Ijaw people are peace loving people and we believe every ethnic group have equal right to aspire to any office in the region that was why we supported Mr. Ledun Mittee as chairman of Niger Delta technical committee. IMG rejected Ekatte as Minister for Niger Delta even before his screening not because of where he comes from but because he was part of our problem for eight years of Obasanio’s Government as SFG. He can be replaced with any Niger Deltan. We wish to use this opportunity to warn Yar’Adua Government to free Henry Okah without delay as his health is fast deteriorating without competent medical care abroad like the ones Yar’ Adua enjoys.

We condemn the establishment of Petroleum university in Kaduna with N50 Billion allocated to it.

The international community should hold Yar’ Adua responsible for the continued anarchy in our regions for failing to implement all previous agreement including the technical committee report (NDTC).